A church in Apple Valley, Calif., opened its doors earlier this month to help get more people tested for Covid-19.

Photo: Terry Pierson/Zuma Press

Even as more Americans get Covid-19 vaccinations, diagnostic manufacturers, employers and public-health authorities are pushing to expand testing for the virus over the next several months to help curb its still-surging spread.

The goal is that more-frequent testing, along with other mitigation measures such as mask wearing and social distancing, can get people back into classrooms and workplaces before the wider availability of vaccines.

“While we’re in the process of immunizing the American people, we must keep our guard up,” Adm. Brett Giroir, assistant secretary for health at the Department of Health and Human Services, who oversees Covid-19 testing, said at a media briefing last week. “You can expect more at-home and screening testing, like before you go to work, before you travel.”

As drugmakers distribute Covid-19 vaccines, cybersecurity experts are warning against the growing threat of tampering and theft by organized-crime networks. WSJ explains how hackers are targeting the vaccine rollout during the pandemic. Illustration: George Downs

Some large employers, including companies such as Netflix Inc., and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., recently started expanding testing for workers, looking to screen people without symptoms. Last week, Google started offering weekly testing for its 90,000 U.S. employees, and airlines and tourist organizations are hoping that testing will get people back in the air.

The U.S. will likely be able to perform more than 70 million Covid-19 tests a week by the end of January, according to recent estimates from the Rockefeller Foundation. By April, that is expected to grow to 200 million weekly tests. The growth will be driven by tests done outside laboratories, including in schools and doctors’ offices, and those processed at home. Increasing the number of patient samples analyzed in a single test, a technique known as pooling, will also likely contribute, the foundation said.

An estimated 183 million tests were available in the month of December, according to HHS. The U.S. currently has greater testing availability than during any other point in the pandemic.

Covid-19 vaccines developed by Moderna Inc. as well as Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE have started to roll out across the U.S. in recent weeks. Supplies are limited, however, and it will take until the spring of 2021 or later before there is wider access, public-health authorities say. Meanwhile, the seven-day average for new daily Covid-19 cases in the U.S. is now more than 214,000, with record-high numbers of cases, hospitalizations and deaths in December.

“People are still getting sick, and we still need to separate who has Covid and who doesn’t,” said Dr. Shamiram Feinglass, chief medical officer at diagnostic test-maker Beckman Coulter Inc. The company plans to seek authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for a laboratory-based antigen test that hunts for pieces of the virus’s proteins and aims to ship 25 million tests a month by March.

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Data from the vaccine makers suggest that the authorized vaccines are more than 94% effective in preventing Covid-19 symptoms, including severe illness. But it is uncertain how effective the vaccines are in preventing asymptomatic transmission of the virus, and testing will likely still be needed to find any potential cases and the corresponding spread. Testing might also be needed to distinguish between any potential reaction to the vaccine and Covid-19, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“At this point for us, we’re even talking about potentially having increased testing around vaccination,” said Dr. Christina Wojewoda, director of the clinical microbiology laboratory at the University of Vermont Medical Center. “As some people post-vaccination do feel a bit ill, I want to be clear that they’re not sick.”

Becton, Dickinson & Co., one of the leading antigen-test makers, plans to scale up its manufacturing capacity from eight million rapid tests in December to 12 million rapid tests in March 2021, along with doubling its capacity for its laboratory-based tests in the next month.

“The demand for us still continues to exceed supply,” said Dave Hickey, world-wide president of integrated diagnostic solutions at BD, who added that the company is seeing growth both in the global market and from specific buyers such as airports and schools. “We absolutely see the need to drive incremental capacity.”

In recent weeks, a handful of tests that can be used and processed entirely at home have received clearance from the FDA, and more are expected to receive authorization in the coming months.

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Even with the expected scale-up, some public-health authorities are pushing for even greater numbers. On Dec. 16, the Rockefeller Foundation released a report that said it was feasible to add 100 million tests on top of its 200 million weekly projection with federal action. The report also proposed testing teachers and other adults in K-12 public schools twice a week and students once a week, mostly through pooling samples.

“Vaccines will really not be fast enough to salvage this spring in terms of America’s public education, and losing another half year of education for our kids is truly devastating,” said Rajiv Shah, president of the Rockefeller Foundation.

Adm. Giroir said, however, that such widespread testing isn’t necessary to open schools safely.

A recent letter to Congress, dated Dec. 15 and signed by more than 50 infectious-disease physicians, epidemiologists and other health authorities, asked legislators to support wider antigen testing to reduce the spread of the virus. Health authorities are currently split on whether the tests should be used for widespread screening among people without symptoms.

“Over the next six months, it is our profound hope that the vaccination of the majority of Americans may bring substantial relief from Covid-19,” the letter said. “Until then, widespread and frequent rapid antigen testing is one of the best available public health tools at our disposal.”

Write to Brianna Abbott at [email protected]

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